[Python-3000] RELEASED Python 3.0 final

[Barry Warsaw]

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On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community, I  
am happy to announce the release of Python 3.0 final.

Python 3.0 (a.k.a. "Python 3000" or "Py3k") represents a major  
milestone in Python's history, and was nearly three years in the  
making.  This is a new version of the language that is incompatible  
with the 2.x line of releases, while remaining true to BDFL Guido van  
Rossum's vision.  Some things you will notice include:

* Fixes to many old language warts
* Removal of long deprecated features and redundant syntax
* Improvements in, and a reorganization of, the standard library
* Changes to the details of how built-in objects like strings and  
dicts work
* ...and many more new features

While these changes were made without concern for backward  
compatibility, Python 3.0 still remains very much "Pythonic".

We are confident that Python 3.0 is of the same high quality as our  
previous releases, such as the recently announced Python 2.6.  We will  
continue to support and develop both Python 3 and Python 2 for the  
foreseeable future, and you can safely choose either version (or both)  
to use in your projects.  Which you choose depends on your own needs  
and the availability of third-party packages that you depend on.  Some  
other things to consider:

* Python 3 has a single Unicode string type; there are no more 8-bit  
strings
* The C API has changed considerably in Python 3.0 and third-party  
extension modules you rely on may not yet be ported
* Tools are available in both Python 2.6 and 3.0 to help you migrate  
your code
* Python 2.6 is backward compatible with earlier Python 2.x releases

We encourage you to participate in Python 3.0's development process by  
joining its mailing list:

     http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000

If you find things in Python 3.0 that are broken or incorrect, please  
submit bug reports at:

    http://bugs.python.org/

For more information, links to documentation, and downloadable  
distributions, see the Python 3.0 website:

    http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.0/

Enjoy,
- -Barry

Barry Warsaw
barry at python.org
Python 2.6/3.0 Release Manager
(on behalf of the entire python-dev team)

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